Invoking Your Natural Sensuality

The Greeks referred to mythical images as “gifts of the gods.” See what you receive when you visualize these ancient symbols.

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, WHILE WRITING A BOOK ON SENSUALITY, I was dining at a restaurant with friends. Our discussion focused on the mysteries of sexual attraction. Between courses, I excused myself and went to the restroom. The restaurant was full of people and I noticed that no one looked at me as I walked by. This indifference struck me: when I was younger, men had always turned their heads when I passed, but after I turned 50, this occurred less frequently. In the restroom, I continued to ponder the nature of sexual attraction. I meditated on an image of feminine sensuality from the chapter I was writing at the time. Still absorbed in the image as I walked back to my table, I was shocked to realize that every male head turned to look at me. I had not reapplied my lipstick, dabbed on perfume, or changed any aspect of my appearance, yet something had shifted. I realized that this sudden attention was due to something emanating from within me.

What happened in the restroom was not magic. As I was washing my hands, I closed my eyes and allowed an image of Aphrodite, goddess of love and sensuality, to form in my mind’s eye. I saw her as a beautiful and deeply sensual goddess standing naked before a mirror, admiring her breasts. I became aware that her breasts were reflective of beauty, power, nourishment, love, and the most beautiful and compelling feminine energies. Absorbed in the image, I began to identify with and embody her energy. In doing so, I experienced an unconscious shift. My usual image of myself as a middle-aged woman with wrinkles vanished as I connected to something deeper—the inherent knowledge of essential feminine sensuality. Neither age nor failure to measure up to the current standards of beauty could diminish my awareness of an inner sensual fullness. Rooted in the very foundations of my own feminine nature, I had walked back to the table, powerful, loving, radiant.

The Gifts of the Gods

The image I saw was not a fantasy. It was a special type of visual experience that brought about an attitudinal, physiological, and energetic shift in me. What I was seeing was a mythic eidetic image. Eidetic images, recognized centuries ago, are bright visual images seen in the mind. (The word “eidetic” comes from the Greek word eidos, which means literally “to see” the beyond at a deep level.) Such images differ from other types of mental images in their unusual clarity and their ability to reproduce important life events and underlying mythic potentials with exact detail. Unlike memory, dreams, daydreams, and guided fantasy images, they are concrete imprints or mental records of the real events of our lives as well as our generic nature. Eidetic images can be seen as still, as in a photo, or animated, as in a movie, and can be re-examined for detail and for new emotional perspectives.

Mythic images derive from traditions of the ancient world—Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece—and persist today in art and are used in religious traditions. For example, Aphrodite was a religious symbol in the ancient Greek religion, embodying the divine, sensual qualities of the feminine. Today she remains a favorite subject of artists and pop culture.

The ancient Greeks spoke of eidetic images as the “gifts of the gods.” Mythic eidetic images are specific forms that eidetic therapists and imagery researchers discovered tap into our reservoirs of information, mental and emotional strength, and grandeur—all powerful reminders of our forgotten wholeness. In my experience as a therapist, I have found that clients who meditate upon these images are often able to connect with the divine or godly qualities within themselves.

The Key Is in the Mind’s Eye

Modern Eidetic Imagery is based on the pioneering work of Dr. Akhter Ahsen, originator of eidetic image psychology and leading theorist in the scientific and clinical study of mental imagery. It is a fast-moving, positive therapy that quickly identifies problem areas and generates change by using precise tools that promote insight and growth.

In the 1950s, the psychological literature described eidetic images as simple topographical visual images seen in the mind’s eye. In the 1960s, Dr. Ahsen discovered the structural eidetic, a dynamic image in the psyche, which reveals that the images are composed of three parts: visual, somatic, and meaning. The visual part is the image seen in the mind’s eye; the somatic is the emotions or bodily sensations experienced while seeing the image; and the meaning is the significance ascribed to each image.

Central to Eidetic Imagery theory is the concept of bio-latency. Bio-latency means that the complete genetic blueprint of our original nature is always available to us, encoded neurologically in our brains, and accessible through eidetic images. Simply stated, it means that our wholeness remains imprinted within, no matter how the history of our lives has diminished us.

Think of an acorn, with the potential to grow into a magnificent oak. Planted in poor soil or watered with acid rain, it becomes a stunted version of nature’s original design. Humans suffer the same fate, as the wholeness and natural gifts with which we were originally endowed are often fragmented by parental criticisms, society’s repressions, and traumas. However, just as the oak tree, freshly supplied with clean water and nutrients, will send out new leaves, we also retain the potential to restore the magnificence of our original genetic blueprint.

In my case, my self-image was colored by concerns about looking older and losing my attractiveness. Our culture does not offer many images of powerful as well as sensual women past the age of 50, and so I had reluctantly accepted that my days of vibrant sensuality were mostly behind me.

Yet seeing and fully embodying the image of Aphrodite restored the cellular genetic knowledge of my true sensual being. With this new vision came a corresponding emotional and physiological shift: I felt sensual, my posture straightened, I stood tall with shoulders back and chest open, and walked back to my table exuding a lush feminine energy. The “gifts of the gods,” in the form of Aphrodite, lived in me.

No wonder the men turned and stared.

Eidetic Imagery Exercises

With your eyes closed or open, whichever feels more comfortable, allow the following images to be formed in your mind’s eye. Pay attention to the image that you see (do not worry if it is vague or vivid), to any sensations or feelings, and to any meanings that come to you. Notice how you feel as you approach seeing the images below. Are you scared and slightly held back from doing them? Or are you open and excited to see what emerges? Notice if your attitude is an indication as to how you may have been raised regarding being comfortable with your own sensuality.

House Image

This is of the home you shared with your parents. If you lived in more than one house, the “home” that is pertinent is the one that comes to mind most strongly. In the home setting appear the principal family members who raised you. This image will bring to the surface the emotions that shaped your early life, and which have enhanced or diminished your genetic potential. Whether you have a positive or negative history with your parents, it can emerge in a subtle manner that can be helpful. Notice how you feel as you see the images of your mother and father.

1. Picture your parents in the house in which you were raised—the one that spontaneously appears in your mind’s eye.

2. Where do you see them?

3. What are they doing?

4. How do you feel when you see the images?

5. Does the house give you a feeling of home?

6. Are there any memories associated with these images?

7. What type or role model for a sensuous woman is your mother?

8. What type of role model for a sensuous man is your father?

Aphrodite Image (for women)

As you visualize this image, the literal physicality of your body—and the size, shape, or quality of your breasts—is not important. What is important is for you to connect to the deep feminine essence that is contained in your breasts. Relax, and let yourself go.

1. See Aphrodite, the goddess of love, in front of a mirror in which her sensuous breasts are reflected. Her breasts appear sensual and proportional in the mirror.

2. See her admiring the image of her own sensuous breasts.

3. These are visionary breasts reflected in the mirror. There is beauty, power, nourishment, everything.

4. The whole of nature with all its sensuousness is reflected in the mirror.

5. Mist-laden colors surround the reflection. There is a perfume flowing out from the mirror.

6. Experience the perfume flowing from the image. It creates an expansion in your consciousness.

7. The reflection in the mirror is an image of the feminine essence within you.

Poseidon Image (for men)

Poseidon embodies untamed male sexuality. He is strong yet open, and his pure and innocent passion makes him very appealing to women. At a primal level, men deeply long to immerse themselves in the feminine in the same way that Poseidon does as he moves towards the temple.

1. See the god Poseidon rising out of the sea. He is coming ashore. He is holding a trident in his hand, the symbol of his power.

2. See his chest. It is strong and broad.

3. See that you have become Poseidon. As you move toward the shore, the waves push against your chest, but the force of your power surging forward pushes against the waves as you move.

4. Feel the waves push against your chest as you surge forward.

5. See that you have come onto the shore, dripping water.

6. See that your body is hot, and the cool air dries your body as you move. Feel the coolness against your body.

7. See that there is a temple on a hill. It is the temple of the virgin priestesses.

8. See a priestess in the temple. Sense the heat in your body as you walk toward the temple.

9. There is a warm fire in the temple and an intoxicating essence of perfume. Smell the perfume.

10. See that you are drawn to the nectar in the temple of the priestesses.

11. Experience the essence of your masculine sexuality flowing through the body.

Cosmic Dance of the Feminine and Masculine (for everyone)

There is an eternal play between masculine and feminine. Often, women express their sensuality as an oceanic experience which ebbs and flows around the male. Male consciousness has the character of solidity, like a rock amid swirling ocean, which delights in the flow of feminine sensuality as it swirls around men.

1. See the ocean. There are waves washing up on the rocks.

2. See a phallic-shaped rock jutting out of the water.

3. See that the waters are warm and feminine, swirling around the rock, crashing, lapping against the rock, in an endless, eternal cosmic play.

4. See the waters playing against the rock. The rock is strong. See the waters swirl against the rock. The rock loves the playful waters. The waters love to play endlessly with the rock.

5. This is the essence of the masculine and feminine eternal dance.

6. Keep this image in mind when you spend time with another.